By TED FARRELL                   August 7, 2001

Sometimes the best way to get a point across is to start off with a few questions, so here we go.

I scored 30 or more points 44 times last year, more than any player in the league. For the season I finished second only to Allen Iverson in scoring at 29.8 points per game Who am I?

I entered the league as the National College Player of the Year, and I averaged 24.9 points per game last season, good for ninth in the league. Who am I?

In this day and age of high schoolers getting drafted in the lottery, which team starts two four year college players, one of whom was picked first overall, and one who was picked second? 

Which team added two All Stars and a three time NBA Champion to its roster since the beginning of last year? 

The answers are as follows: Jerry Stackhouse, Antawn Jamison, New Jersey Nets, Atlanta Hawks. 

Now for the most telling question of all. How many total appearances will these teams, and these players make on National Television this year? 

Four.

Now for the follow up question: Take these four appearances, and add the number of National TV performances for Chicago, Memphis, Boston, and Chicago. What do you get?

Four. 

There is of course an easy correlation to be made here, and I am not disputing the fact that the aforementioned players and teams all found themselves near the bottom of the standings last season, but don’t think for a moment that winning will automatically get you on the airwaves. Charlotte swept Miami in the first round of last year’s playoffs by margins of 26, 26, and 15 points. As a reward for their impressive victory, Baron Davis and company will be on the national stage three times this year, while Miami will be on six times. 

Those of you wishing to see Paul Pierce, Antoine Walker, Kwame Brown, Tyson Chandler or Eddy Curry best tune into SportsCenter, because that’s the only time you’ll be able to see them. I realize that the teams these guys play for are not exactly amongst the NBA royalty, but couldn’t we do a little better? Sportswriters and league officials constantly bemoan the fact that no college seniors are drafted highly anymore, and then make nary a peep as Shane Battier, Keith Van Horn, Kenyon Martin, and Andre Miller toil away in broadcasting Siberia.

I fully understand that the basic principle in television is to maximize the audience, and programming decisions are made with this and only this in mind. But the exorbitant licensing fees paid by the networks to air these games tend to last for several years at a time, and I can’t help but think that it would be a wise idea to sow a few seeds for the future from time to time. The NBA will have 94 nationally televised regular season games this year, which calls for a total of 188 teams. I am certainly not suggesting an NBC doubleheader featuring Memphis at Cleveland followed by Detroit at Golden State, but there are some good matchups that would be a natural magnet not only for today’s established audience, but also for the budding fans of tomorrow. Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker finished 8th and 11th in scoring respectively last season. Wouldn’t you like to watch them shoot it out with a run and gun team like Phoenix or Houston? How about the Clippers and Hawks getting together on TNT? Jason Terry feeding Shareef Abdur Rahim on the break. Lamar Odom taking his man off the dribble, drawing the help defender, and feeding a cutting Darius Miles for a running one hander? Hubie Brown would hardly be able to contain himself. 

I am all for showing perennial winners on a regular basis, because they have earned their place. But the NBA has been, and always will be a game of stars. Unfortunately, some short sighted people have fed us the same stars over and over as opposed to letting us choose them. 29 teams are set to start play at the end of October, but you wouldn’t know it by watching TNT and NBC. Next season as you doze off watching Charlie Ward walk the ball up the court for the millionth time, take solace in the fact that there is a whole other universe of talent out there, and someday if we’re lucky, a national TV truck just may stumble upon it. 
 
 

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